Alumni News

Jody Harpster (Ph.D. ’85) named president of Shippensburg University

George F. “Jody” Harpster (Ph.D. ’85) has been named president of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.

Harpster was named president on Jan. 22. He had been serving as interim president of Shippensburg since 2013.

Shippensburg University, located in Shippensburg, Pa., is a comprehensive university with about 7,400 students. It has 325 full-time faculty members and offers 100 undergraduate and 57 graduate programs.

Harpster previously was the university’s executive vice president for external affairs and government relations and also held the position of interim president from June 2005 to February 2007. He came to Shippensburg in 1995 as vice president for student affairs after having earlier earned a master’s degree there.

“Jody Harpster’s academic credentials and administrative experience, together with his many years of dedication to Shippensburg University and his deep roots in the community, were hard to match, even by several other very well-qualified applicants who were considered,” Glen Grell, a university trustee and chair of the presidential search committee, said in remarks released by the university.

Before coming to Shippensburg, Harpster spent more than a decade at UNC-Charlotte where he served as director of student life, dean of students and assistant vice chancellor for student affairs. He also worked in Student Affairs at Carolina, serving in several roles in Housing in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In addition to his Ph.D. from the School of Education, Harpster holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Juniata College, a Master of Science degree in counseling and college student personnel administration from Shippensburg.